BEACH-goers are scared, tourist operators are jittery and politicians want a quick kill.

But despite being at a loss to explain three horrific deaths in two months, scientists have warned that culling great whites is unlikely to reduce the remove the risk of shark attacks in WA.

And the only way to identify the guilty shark is to open its stomach.

WA has never issued a catch-and-kill order before but the death of a diver on Saturday - the third fatal shark attack off the coastline in two months - has raised fears that Jaws has become a reality for the state.

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Despite stressing that it was rare to have so many fatalities in such a relatively short time, Fisheries Minister Norman Moore is under pressure to enforce a shark cull along the coastline.

"If you can tell me the last time when we had three fatalities in two months then I'd like to know," he said.

"This is a unique set of circumstances and I'm desperately ... and indeed praying ... this is not the beginning of a new trend, and we're going to have these on a regular basis.

“If it’s threat, we’ll destroy it”

"In the meantime we will be looking at all the options we can find, when people go swimming ... to the best of our capacity to protect them."

The minister foreshadowed new guidelines that would allow the hunting of any shark that presented a threat to human life on any beach in WA.

"If it's a threat to people or it attacks somebody and we can destroy it, then we will," he said.

Premier Colin Barnett added: "I am very concerned that we have had three fatalities in such a short period of time.

Shark victimSource:Supplied

Shark attackSource:Supplied

"Culling could be considered if those sharks are staying around popular beach areas."

Saturday's horrific attack took place off Rottnest Island, 18km from Perth. The victim, 32-year-old Texan George Wainwright, was attacked after he left his dive boat to go spear fishing.

His friends, who stayed on board the boat, said the first sign of trouble was a stream of bubbles on the sea’s surface.

Two weeks ago Bryn Martin, 64, disappeared while swimming off Cottesloe Beach. His body has never been found but his torn swimming trunks were found on the seabed.

A month before that, Kyle Burden, 21, was bitten in half while body-boarding at a beach south of Perth.

On Sunday evening, a TV news helicopter reported sighting a large shark just 200 metres off Thomson Bay at Rottnest Island. Five boats were immediately despatched to the area to look for it.

The question everyone wants answered is: Why three fatal attacks in such a short time in the same area?

Marine biologists are at a loss. Theories put forward include an increase in seal colonies around Rottnest Island and the whale migration taking place up the coast (great whites which are known to track migrating whales).

Although the catch-and-kill order has won the support of nervous tourist operators but shark experts have warned that killing great whites won't necessarily make the coast safer.

Guilty shark kilometres away

They said there was no way of being sure the sharks caught were the ones responsible - beyond cutting open there stomach and examining the contents.

Barbara Wueringer, a researcher at the University of Western Australia, told thetimes.co.uk: "It sounds a little bit like taking revenge, and we’re talking about an endangered species."

Barry Bruce, from CSIRO, does not believe the same shark killed Mr Wainwright and Mr Martin, and has suggested that the guilty great white will be kilometres away by now.

"Multiple sharks move up and down our coastlines. Sharks swim around 70-80km a day,” he said.

"Sharks come from all over southern Australia waters, so it would seem highly unlikely that culling sharks at any one point would reduce the number which come here and therefore reduce risk."

Shark attack mapSource:Supplied

Professor Shaun Collin, from the Oceans Institute at the University of Western Australia, said: "The culling of any species of sharks is not the solution. Not only will this be indiscriminate killing of a protected species, there is no way of being sure the sharks caught will be those responsible for the attacks.

"There is no data to suggest that shark numbers are increasing off WA’s coastline and shark attacks in Australia have remained relatively constant over time, occurring at a rate of approximately one per year for the last 50 years."

Culling “won’t work”

He said shark played a "critical role in the complex balance of oceanic ecosystems and their removal can have major impacts on other marine species".

Dr Charlie Huveneers, a shark expert at the Marine Environment and Ecology Program at the South Australian Research and Development Institute, echoed his concerns.

"There is no scientific evidence to suggest that the short time period between the recent attacks is a reflection of an increased population size of white sharks," he said.

"It could simply be related to the seasonal fluctuation of the number of white sharks within specific areas and that white sharks might naturally be more often occurring around the populated Western Australian coastline at this time of the year."

He warned that because great whites were "known to undertake very large migrations between South Australia and Ningaloo Reef on the west coast and off Rockhampton on the east coast", the culling of a sharks at one location was unlikely to reduce a risk of shark attacks.